Rutgers Football: What a Difference One Play Makes

What a difference a play makes.  It sounds like the title of a song (What a Difference a Day Makes).

The Rutgers football team found out what a difference a play makes in their 16-14 loss to the Louisville Cardinals on Friday night.  The game was televised nationally on ESPN.

The most glaring play was Mark Harrison's drop with 9:21 left in the game.

The Scarlet was trailing 16-14 when Harrison got five yards behind the last of the Louisville secondary and quarterback Gary Nova threw the ball right where he was supposed to.  Harrison dropped the ball.

But it could have any one of many mistake ridden plays that cost Rutgers the game.

It could have been the 31 yard field goal San San Te missed at the beginning of the second quarter.  It could have been the 25 yard field goal he missed towards the end of the same quarter.

It could have been any one of the three costly interceptions that Nova threw.  One killed Rutgers' first drive of the game and one killed their last.

It could have been one of the plays where the Rutgers defense failed to tackle.  All of these plays contributed to the 187 rushing yards Louisville had in the game.

And it could have been the wrong call by Greg Schiano with 7:19 left in the game.  Rutgers had the ball on their own 40 yard line in a fourth and a half yard situation.

Schiano decided to punt.  He wasted a time out to make the poor call and punter Justine Doerner didn't exactly pin Louisville deep in their own territory like he could have.

So what happens if one of the plays goes the other way and Rutgers wins the game?

For one, Rutgers becomes bowl eligible and they win their fifth straight game.  Their record goes to an impressive 6-1.

They remain alone at the top of the Big East standings with a 3-0 conference record.

In a nationally televised game they wouldn't have looked like an error prone team that couldn't beat a 3-4 Louisville team that lost to FIU and struggled against Murray State.

And how about this, Rutgers breaks into the Top 25 rankings.

But two things would have occurred that remind us most about the difference just one play makes:

For one, Greg Schiano doesn't go up to the podium after the game and say, "We just made too many mistakes."

Instead he says, "Once again these guys showed that they just don't quit."

And the other thing, all Rutgers fans go to bed happy.